Conveyor belt fasteners

A strip of conveyor belt fasteners that remain connected during operations of a conveyor belt system with the conveyor belt having a troughed configuration, the conveyor belt fastener strip comprising:

• a plurality of plates of metallic material for being attached onto an end of a conveyor belt, the plates each having a first belt facing surface and a second surface facing away from the belt;
• elastomeric connecting portions of elastomeric material extending between and connecting adjacent plates in the fastener strip and configured to allow the plates to reorient to be angled upwardly from a generally planar orientation relative to each other via resilient flexing of the elastomeric material of the connecting portions during troughing of the conveyor belt and to substantially obviate trapping or sifting of conveyed material between the plates;
• first and second elastomeric surfaces of the elastomeric connecting portions corresponding to the first and second plate surfaces with the second elastomeric surface corresponding to the plate second surface not being recessed therefrom to avoid providing areas for collection of conveyed material on the second elastomeric surface;
• and
• gaps in the first elastomeric surface facing the conveyor belt to allow for pivoting of adjacent connected plates relative to each other via stretching or contracting of the elastomeric material of the elastomeric connecting portions.